Snitkova I.I. Bach-Webern. The ricercar from «The Musical Offering»: the idea of structural counterpoint

Abstract: The six-voice ricercar from "The Musical Offering" by J.S. Bach in the orchestration of Anton Webern is one of the unique examples of the interpretation of the music of the great masters that far surpasses the boundaries of ordinary arrangement: its result represents a new authorized version of a classic work. By simply restructuring the existing material, Webern was able to create a new work of composition and style without actually "producing" anything new. This article is devoted to the analysis of this newly textured-intonational construction of the well-known Bach fugue.The artistic effect of this radical rethinking is based on the idea of structural counterpoint arising from the imposition on Bach's urtext of the new textural and compositional logic of Webern’s orchestration. Hence the main research method here: a comparative theoretical analysis of Bach's text and the orchestral score of Webern. Over Bach's "fugue of melodic lines" Webern extends his own "fugue of voices." Its "theme" – unchanged, but constantly undergoing appropriate development – is a defined structure of timbre transmissions: ABC B ABC, subordinated to the unified algorithm termed the "abstract variational scheme" (in the definition of C. Dahlhaus).To reflect the particularities of Webern’s work the article introduces a new theoretical concept, the transinstrumental line. With the resulting diagonal profile, this line is essentially a superimposed textured form mounted "on top" of the primary horizontal elements of the material, forming in the texture of the composition an additional structural-hierarchical level by acting as an intonational-guiding voice. From this grows, via simulative polyphony, a more complex texture of the fugue as a whole, distinct from the original in its contours. The wealth of the internal structure of Bach-Webern ricercar and the correspondingly diverse musical semantics toward which Webern so strove are based on an original combination of principles: linear polyphony, counterpoint technique and the monotimbre horizontal (present in Bach) with the motive orchestral pointillism, timbre structuralism and transinstrumental line (created by Webern).

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